clipping.

Fat Fingers

The latest album from clipping. is Splendor & Misery. It was released by Sub Pop Records in September, 2016.

When this project was first presented to us, we were asked to contribute our track “Knees on the Ground,” which was released on our SoundCloud back in 2014. The song is about the murder of a young, unarmed black person by an overzealous, militarized, racist police force. While that topic has not lost its relevance, we decided that it’s in some ways unrelated to the outcome of the current presidential race—racism in the US predates this particular contest by centuries and will certainly not be solved simply by keeping one overt white supremacist out of political office. Additionally, “Knees on the Ground” is a deeply serious song, whose tone fits its horrific subject matter. Listening through the tracks that other artists have contributed to the project so far, a sense of whimsy prevails. It is as if the different songs and their themes were written to complement the absurdity and the laughing-through-the-tears quality of the race. We saw this as an opportunity to indulge ourselves in similar frivolity, not to downplay the direness of the situation, but to engage in other established modes of political critique: satire, irony, and yo’ mama jokes.

Donald Trump has time and again proven himself to have the temperament of a petulant, whiny child. In the world of hip-hop, that behavior finds its most visible expression in the forms of battle rap and diss songs. We decided to address our attack in those languages. Our song is set on a schoolyard, using drum sounds constructed from fists beating on metal lunch tables, benches, and dumpster lids. Diss songs are made quickly and have very short shelf lives. They are often written and recorded in a few hours so that the tape can be delivered to Hot 97 before one’s rival’s tape arrives. They are quickly replaced and updated, day to day, by each subsequent response. In that spirit, we hope that this song will lose all of its relevance on November 9th. However, if it doesn’t—to our friends in New Zealand and Canada, we might need to leave our country in a hurry, so we learned your national anthems.

Lyrics

Fat fingers fumble with silver spoons earned for nothing
It's Too much twitter talk to be trusted with the button
Toupee cocked ace duce
With a Eastwood squint
And the grandest of delusions Makin moves for president
A product of racists with weak poker faces
They pulled this trump card now the whole game's disgraced
It's a race to erase a shitty taste in the mouth
That rings antebellum in the belly
Upselling deplorables as diplomats
With cash tax free
He say he getting money and it's funny to see
A trail of businesses belly up
Yelling hysteria
Compelling emails when every statement he make is hilarious
She fuck with your soul like ether
(Will) teach you to speak you know your
(Not) own party jumps ship daily
(Lose) prove that you lost already
want to see immigration go down
Elect his ass and watch most sane Americans skip town
Singing
First off fuck your tricks and the clique you claim
How an uncredentialed rapist even get in the game
Keep America's name out your mouth
You fat fuck
Before your precious nra come And clapp your ass up
Who the fuck let this man talk
Shit is embarrassing
A fear monger swearing to protect the world from terror and
statements he keep on Makin it
Media keep on takin it
As if a crazy narcissists ravings are entertaining
Can't relate to shit cause his life been too kushy
And keep grabbing vaginas
Cause won't no one give him pussy
And keep telling these lies cause the truth ain't been good
To businessman who lost more money than rain forests lost wood
He wanna make America great again
Like when women couldn't vote and it was legal to own humans as slaves
And you could say goodbye to roe v wade
And fair pay
And maybe see a different flag being waved
Call him out like